Stone Children
By Lera Yanysheva
Translated by A.Z. ForemanIt hurts. It's crushing me. Forgive me. Please. How can you have just left me all at once?I didn't know I would give death to you.Oh God what have I done? Forgive me, sons.My sons, they've paid for sins that I committed.Gone through agony because of me. I wanted the fine life, the house, the money.Some other Lovara live in luxury....I wanted you to not want for a thing,A fortune to keep my boys set for life. So I went and sold my soul to a foul manAnd started selling heroin as a wife. What good is all this money to me now? Oh Christ! What have they gone and done? Why, thoseBoys knew exactly where to score some smack. They shot each other up and overdosed.I bought them this luxurious monument.This is the marble that they sleep below.I had to bury you, my boys, my babies.Fortune and fine life left me long ago.Standing and staring at the iron crossesI've locked my heart and blown away the keys.You were so lively, boys. Now you're all stone.It hurts. It's crushing me. Forgive me. Please.